TEXARKANA, Texas - Liberty-Eylau Independent School District Board of Trustees approved targeted improvement plans for their elementary and middle school campuses, in addition to holding a public hearing for the school's Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, at a regular meeting Thursday night.
The district identified two campuses for school improvement - Liberty-Eylau Elementary and Liberty-Eylau Middle School. Both campuses were required to develop targeted improvement plans to address focus areas in need of improvement.
The Campus Leadership teams from each campus developed the plans that were presented. The core components for each plan were based on the results from the Effective School Framework Diagnostic.
Principals from both campuses presented their plans to the board.
L-E Middle School Principal Marlon Byrdsong said the two areas of improvement that were targeted included lesson plans and data-driven instruction.
To improve lesson plans, teachers turned them in early to give administrators time to give feedback, as well as give teachers time to address changes and ask questions.
Some of the ways they looked to improve DDI, which is data taken from six weeks assessments and testing results to improve instruction, were to hold teacher meetings, develop re-teach strategies and include questions from areas with low scores in their "bell-ringers."
"What we have seen is that in the last six weeks, we had about a 20% (pass rate), but when we did the re-teach, we saw around 60% pass," Byrdsong said. "So, that's letting us know that the data-driven instruction is truly working for our campus, as well as the lesson plans."
L-E Elementary School Principal Kristi Brown said they also were looking to improve lesson plans, in addition to campus culture.
To improve their lesson-planning, they have implemented uniform lesson plan templates, so teachers know what is expected from them. This also allows for feedback the teachers can respond to.
To improve campus culture, the elementary is exercising their "Capturing Kids Hearts" training.
"It's a common language on how to talk to our kids and address challenging issues by not belittling students, but doing so with love and structure," Brown said. "Common language and vocabulary is something we're working towards, so if a first-grader is talked to by a second-grade teacher, we're all using the same language, so it's not something that we don't understand."
Business Manager Frank Rougeou presented the public hearing for the school's FIRST rating, on which they scored the highest rating, Superior, by gaining 94 out of 100 possible points. This rating analyzes the district's management of financial resources.
Also approved by the board was a resolution to provide additional paid leave, with a maximum of two occurrences, for all employees who are instructed not to report to work due to COVID-19. It will begin Jan. 4 and expire June 30.
Superintendent Ronnie Thompson reported that student enrollment is now at 2,292.